I know ffmpeg is only being "tested" now, but any reason it will only with with PyTivo? I would like to try another encoder for my G5 since Handbrake doesn't work (I'm on 10.4) and mencoder seems to take FOREVER...

I know ffmpeg is only being "tested" now, but any reason it will only with with PyTivo? I would like to try another encoder for my G5 since Handbrake doesn't work (I'm on 10.4) and mencoder seems to take FOREVER...

-fate

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Ermm.. nah there's nothing specifically in pyTivoX that makes it work. As long as you have a valid and working ffmpeg binary somewhere in your PATH, it will find it and use it -- however, you're on your own if it's missing any necessary libraries or whatnot.. (it will default to adding the pyTivoX location to PATH, so that it'll find ffmpeg there if nowhere else).

Also, there's a divx3 and an mpeg-1 encoder in there now, that should hopefully be MUCH faster to encode with if you're unhappy with the ffmpeg behavior.

Thanks for the program. I can't seem to get it to download, though. My Tivo recordings show up in the now playing list. When I highlight and click Download (to the desktop) no file shows up, no downloading seems to commence. Am I doing something wrong?

Thanks for the program. I can't seem to get it to download, though. My Tivo recordings show up in the now playing list. When I highlight and click Download (to the desktop) no file shows up, no downloading seems to commence. Am I doing something wrong?

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It sounds like you're doing everything right. Do you get any errors?
Is there a progress bar at the bottom? (sometimes downloads happen in stages, and nothing shows up until the last stage.. and even that's incomplete until the stage is done).

There is no button labelled "Download to the desktop". There's "Download Show" and "Download Now". I'm assuming you're clicking "Download Show"? (Download Now is part of the queue processing area.. and it doesn't sound like you're using the queue)

iTivo works by using Broadcast packets to discover the Tivo. Broadcast packets don't traverse a router/NAT interface. Even if you log in using a VPN it sill won't work.

Best bet would be to simply log into your Tivo's web page and download the files that way and then manually convert them yourself. But remotely, this is going to take a long, long time. It will probably take 4 to 6 hours to download a single show if not longer.

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Ermmm..
the broadcast packets are only necessary to automatically discover the tivo. The download itself happens over https (port 443, tcp). So, if you have a way of contacting the tivo from the outside (via port forwarding for example) then simply type in the tivo's IP address into "Tivo IP Address" text box, and click "connect to tivo". iTiVo will happily download shows for you (albeit very slowly)

It sounds like you're doing everything right. Do you get any errors?
Is there a progress bar at the bottom? (sometimes downloads happen in stages, and nothing shows up until the last stage.. and even that's incomplete until the stage is done).

There is no button labelled "Download to the desktop". There's "Download Show" and "Download Now". I'm assuming you're clicking "Download Show"? (Download Now is part of the queue processing area.. and it doesn't sound like you're using the queue)

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There is no progress bar. I am hitting the "Download Show" button. Also tried putting in the Download queue and trying to download from there. Still no apparent result. The destination file is my Mac desktop. Shouldn't a file pop up on the desktop as soon as the download begins?

There is no progress bar. I am hitting the "Download Show" button. Also tried putting in the Download queue and trying to download from there. Still no apparent result. The destination file is my Mac desktop. Shouldn't a file pop up on the desktop as soon as the download begins?

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If I am not mistaken, shows initially download to /tmp -- they are only moved to the destination folder you specify (the desktop in your case) when transcoding is complete.

So iTiVo is probably working fine for you. To verify, start a download, then in the Finder choose Go > Go to Folder... and type /tmp. You should see an iTiVo folder in there containing a bunch of files timestamped with the time you started your download. Let iTiVo do its work and you'll find your show on the desktop as expected once it's done.

A question: I've downloaded shows using the Quicktime h.264 5Mbps setting (recommended for archiving), with commercials removed. These clips play fine in Quicktime and VLC.

However, when I go to compress the video clips using Handbrake (with the Apple universal preset), I run into problems. I'm able to load the clip as the source in Handbrake and begin the encoding process, but then Handbrake crashes almost immediately. This is repeatable.

I'm trying VisualHub now, so far no crashes, but I'm wondering what would cause Handbrake to choke on the clip output by iTiVo (I'd prefer to use Handbrake). Is there some output setting that needs to be tweaked for that h.264 5Mbps video setting? Sorry if this is a Handbrake problem that you can't help with.

It sounds like you're doing everything right. Do you get any errors?
Is there a progress bar at the bottom? (sometimes downloads happen in stages, and nothing shows up until the last stage.. and even that's incomplete until the stage is done).

There is no button labelled "Download to the desktop". There's "Download Show" and "Download Now". I'm assuming you're clicking "Download Show"? (Download Now is part of the queue processing area.. and it doesn't sound like you're using the queue)

If I am not mistaken, shows initially download to /tmp -- they are only moved to the destination folder you specify (the desktop in your case) when transcoding is complete.

So iTiVo is probably working fine for you. To verify, start a download, then in the Finder choose Go > Go to Folder... and type /tmp. You should see an iTiVo folder in there containing a bunch of files timestamped with the time you started your download. Let iTiVo do its work and you'll find your show on the desktop as expected once it's done.

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OK, thanks for the suggestion. 15 minutes ago I selected a show to dowload and it does indeed show up in the tmp file, however after 15 minutes it is still showing 0 KB as the file size. Doesn't seem like it actually downloads.

OK, thanks for the suggestion. 15 minutes ago I selected a show to dowload and it does indeed show up in the tmp file, however after 15 minutes it is still showing 0 KB as the file size. Doesn't seem like it actually downloads.

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Just let it run. Depending on the length of the show, HD/SD, the post-download actions you take on it, commercial skip, etc., it can take a multiple of the show length to complete the process.

However, when I go to compress the video clips using Handbrake (with the Apple universal preset), I run into problems. I'm able to load the clip as the source in Handbrake and begin the encoding process, but then Handbrake crashes almost immediately.

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What version of macOS are you using? The handbrake encoder is 10.5 only...

Open up Terminal.app and run

Code:

/Applications/iTiVo.app/Contents/Resources/HandBrakeCLI

. Is it spitting out an error?

If you're on 10.5, the handbrake setting simply runs handbrake's encoder instead of mencoder. I can't really control it crashing . It might have managed to spit something useful into /tmp/iTiVo-<username>/iTivoDL2 ?

And no, I don't do anything 'special'. The file I provide to handbrake is a 'chopped up' version of the source mpeg-2. You can get the exact same contents of that file by choosing 'decrypt/copy' as the format. Then you can see what happens when you run handbrake on that file by hand...

OK, thanks for the suggestion. 15 minutes ago I selected a show to dowload and it does indeed show up in the tmp file, however after 15 minutes it is still showing 0 KB as the file size. Doesn't seem like it actually downloads.

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Ok, something is definitely wrong.
You *should* see a progress bar.
If you've selected to remove commercials, those files *should* grow (they will not grow if you don't use comskip).

(those are three seperate commands.. each should give you some output that I'd like to see.. *something* is wrong but it's not clear to me what yet). That said, you wouldn't normally see a file popping up on the desktop unless you don't have comskip and other features enabled. Basically, in the simplest mode, it encodes the data on the fly as it arrives, and so you get a partial file showing up. However, if you enable comskip, or certain encoders, it needs to run some processing on the whole movie, so it downloads it to /tmp/ first, and then does the processing. Your file won't show up on the desktop until it's on the last phase of the processing....